I am in broad, near total, agreement with you. There’s just the point about trust that I want to address.

For me, it’s not necessarily about ‘trusting’ the DPRK. It starts with recognising that we can’t trust anything Western governments or media say about the DPRK.

We know for certain that we cannot trust Western voices. (1) They have been caught in too many lies already. (2) Whether they lie or not, the world looks different from a dialectical materialist perspective, which makes bourgeois conclusions faulty even if they’re honest.

If this is correct, it means rebuilding a model of everything that capitalists have ever spoken about. That includes the DPRK, Cuba, etc.

In that case, we need to look for data and evidence from somewhere else, which happens to include official e.g. DPRK sources (although we can critically analyse Western sources and find the kernel of truth if there is one, to help us do the same to those un/official pro-DPRK sources and come to a new conclusion).

As for that conclusion, we do know some uncontrovertable facts. The US and it’s allies invaded Korea, killing millions of people. They invaded as a neocolonial project and to prevent the spread of communism. The US never left. An invading army that doesn’t leave is almost by definition an occupying force. That means the south of the peninsula is occupied by a foreign enemy.

Under these conditions, we cannot expect enlightenment in the region. As it happens, I’m convinced the north is a lot closer to paradise than Western media and officials ever suggest (not to say that it is or ever could be a paradise—I’m not a utopian socialist). For the majority of people, it may even be better in the north than in the south. But other ‘leftists’ don’t have to agree about that.

I think that recognising these details is necessary to convince westerners in general to act in solidarity with Korea to achieve the goals that you rightly say we need to achieve. We’re not going to get anywhere with lifting sanctions for so long as westerners implicitly agree that some level of occupation/action is necessary because the DPRK is XYZ.

After recognising these details, it becomes clearer that western leftists need to stop caring so much about what goes on in other countries (unless it’s to offer critical support) and focus instead on preventing their governments from conducting/facilitating the most violent empire in history. (Which I think you’re already saying?)